Damanhur

Damanhur (Arabic: دمنهور‎ Damanhūr, IPA: [dɑmɑnˈhuːɾ]; Egyptian: Dmỉ-n-Ḥr.w; Coptic: ⲡϯⲙⲓⲛ̀ϩⲱⲣ Ptīminhōr; pronounced [ptəmənhoːr]; Ancient Greek: Ἑρμοῦ πόλις μικρά Hermopolis Mikra) is a city in Lower Egypt, and the capital of the Beheira Governorate. It is located 160 km (99 mi) northwest of Cairo, and 70 km (43 mi) E.S.E. of Alexandria, in the middle of the western Nile Delta.

In ancient Egypt, the city was the capital of Lower Egypt’s 7th Nome of A-ment. It stood on the banks of a canal which connected the lake Mareotis with the Canopic or most westerly arm of the Nile.[1] The city was dedicated to the Ancient Egyptian god Horus. In Greek and Roman times, it was called Hermopolis Mikra or Hermopolis Parva, which would also give it an association with Hermes, the Egyptian Thoth.[2] As Hermopolis, the city attracted the notice of numerous ancient geographers, including Stephanus of Byzantium s. v., Strabo (xvii. p. 802), Ptolemy (iv. 5. § 46), and the author of the Antonine Itinerary (p. 154). It is a Roman Catholic titular see.

In 1799, the city revolted against the French, who cruelly crushed the rebels, killing 1,500.

In 1986, the population of Damanhur was 188,939. The richly cultivated Beheira province gives rise to mainly agricultural industries which include cotton ginning, potato processing, and date picking. It also has a market for cotton and rice.

Ahmed H. Zewail, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1999, was born in Damanhur in 1946.

Damanhur was known in the ancient Egyptian language as The City of (the god) Horus,[4] on the grounds that it was a center for the worship of this god. It was also known by other names: in the Egyptian texts, “Behdet”;[5] in the Greek texts “Hermou Polis Mikra” (the lesser city of Hermes), translated to Latin by the Romans as “Hermopolis Parva”; the name “Obollenoboles” (or Apollonopolis) associated it with the Greek god Apollo, and it was also called “Tel Ballamon”. Now it is known by its oldest name, which was rendered in Bohairic Coptic: Ⲡⲓϯⲙⲓⲛ̀ϩⲱⲣ or Ⲡⲧⲓⲙⲉⲛϩⲱⲣ,[6] and thus rendered in Arabic as “Damanhur” following the Islamic conquest.